So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.

â€”Sun Tzu, The Art of War

The two major forms of Republicanism each have a doctrine that is tied to actual documents. Religious social conservatives have The Bible, while fiscal and Constitutional conservatives have the Constitution. It is safe to say that the vast majority of Republicans have their political tenants supplied by one, if not both, of these documents. This type of textual anchor is a positive philosophically and morally but in a strictly political sense can be a liability. The resulting positives are what tend to be deep, time-tested convictions, stability, certainty and, when used, an effective measuring stick for candidates in primaries. However, in our current event driven and largely politically uninformed society the negative is that this rigidness makes it nearly impossible to adapt positions to individual situations and use current events for maximum political gain.

This is a problem that the modern day liberal Democrat will not have anytime soon. They indeed stand in the starkest of contrast. Having left the Constitution behind decades ago, they move forward with no defined doctrine. No set of black and white documents that create, inform, or guide their ideology (and don\’t even try to give me the party platform). This creates a situation in which changing party leadership sets an evolving standard as to what defines a Democrat. This not only allows them to easily tailor their political message to what they perceive to be popular at the moment, but grants them the option of playing the role of â€œlifeguardâ€ and coming to the citizenry’s rescue with politically crafted legislation.

This, in tandem with the current perception that this is indeed the role of government, is extremely effective but thankfully also comes with disadvantages. First, the […]

From John Hawkins: It was disappointing to many Republicans to see the National Republican Senatorial Committee get involved in the Charlie Crist vs. Marco Rubio primary in Florida. We’ve had the leadership of the Republican Party saying we need to get back to our principles and talking about how important it is to attract […]

I got an E-mail overnight wondering why I’d not mentioned Obama getting enough delegates to win the nomination for his party. (Shrug) OK… here…. from yesterday, here’s a note from ABC’s political page Sen. Barack Obama achieved the 2,118 needed to clinch the Democratic nomination for president last night and made history by becoming the […]

Barack Obama, speaking to donors in San Francisco: But – so the questions you’re most likely to get about me, ‘Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What’s the concrete thing?’ What they wanna hear is – so, we’ll give you talking points about what we’re proposing – close tax loopholes, roll back, […]

A note from Pollster.com’s Mark Blumenthal gives us some indication of those numbers I mentioned yesterdayl, about hom many Democrats would vote McCain, if their boy didn’t win. (Yes, I mean Hillary, too) Some Context on the Democratic Defectors Brian Schaffner provides some helpful context for the Gallup “Democratic defector” results that we linked to […]

Aside from the mess we described here last week for ANY kind of action as regards Florida and Michigan, the Democrats are now willing to add to that a mail-in scheme. WASHINGTON -(Fox) A consensus began to emerge Sunday that the best way to give Florida’s Democrats a voice in electing a candidate for president […]

Candidates is glass houses, the Obama campaign on the Clintons’ campaign, via MSNBC: “As it relates to ethics and transparency,” Plouffe said, “we’re surprised that they would want to have an extended conversation about contributors and land deals and ethics issues. I don’t think that’s a lengthy conversation that’s probably going to work out very […]

They’re waking up, sorta. Drum, today: VITRIOL….Atrios: The campaigns and candidates themselves may not get nasty, but I get the sense that supporters of the various candidates are getting angrier at the other camp. Sure a lot of this is just relatively harmless virtual world internet flaming, but it has real world manifestations too. This […]

Hang down your head Rush Limbaugh. Hang down your head in shame. Saturday Night Live has done in a mere two weeks, what you have failed to so in twenty years of broadcsat excellence. The main stream media has been shamed into doiong their job, Dana Milbank, Washington Post: The day before primaries in Ohio and […]

Maybe it was the fault of the building? (CNN) — The building where a gunman killed five people at Northern Illinois University two weeks ago will be demolished, state officials said Wednesday Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s office confirmed that the state will provide the funding for the university to demolish Cole Hall, the site of […]

I note with some amusement, our fellow SwampStomper, Gaius over at Blue Crab: I have not bothered to comment on that picture of Barack Obama wearing the garb of a Somali elder that was circulated over the weekend. I’m glad I didn’t since Drudge is now reporting that the picture was circulated by Clinton staffers […]

Billy “I’ve always believed that he’s the easier candidate to beat in the Fall.” (McPhillips: “Are The Clintons Over?”) I think his general position is correct: these people won’t be “over” until we see their boxes getting dropped into the ground. She’ll be back as long as she can get someone to point a teevee […]

An amusing article at Captain’s Quarters, today…. Susan Estrich either wants to build credibility as a satirist, or her latest column provides a long-overdue look in the mirror for Democrats. Detecting more a whiff of the so-called Bradley Effect in primaries where Barack Obama holds solid polling leads only to mysteriously fall short of Hillary […]

“Hillary Clinton! You’ve lost the last six primaries in a row, and now Obama is beating you even when your ace in the hole, the Superdelegates are counted. You’ve already blown out your campaign manager, and your asst campaign manager quit yesterday. What are you going to do now?” ” I’m going to Disneyworld!” That […]

The weather outside is frightful. Good day to be a duck. Mitt Romney: I voted for Mitt. He would make a good president. Sad to say, Romney is just one horrible candidate, a modern day Jack Kemp. Romney has won primaries in what three states, Michigan, Massachusetts and Utah. All three could be called Romney home […]